Center chosen for new federal program to treat adolescent depression

August 26, 2002|By Barbara Sherlock, Tribune staff reporter.

A not-for-profit youth services organization based in Chicago Heights is one of three in the country selected to participate in a new federal program seeking to better identify and treat adolescent depression.

Aunt Martha's Youth Service Center, with 12 offices throughout the region, will work with child psychology experts as part of a Health Disparities Collaborative, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration.

"It is a program designed to improve care for this specific chronic condition," said Dr. Lee Washington, Aunt Martha's medical director. "This is a very large problem, which is often unidentified."

His staff at the Vincennes Health Center in Chicago Heights, for example, recently screened random clients who were visiting the center for a variety of reasons, including school physicals. During that weeklong period, they found five adolescents who had depression.

"We believe we're going to find more and more similar cases, where adolescents are identified as depressed who otherwise might not have been recognized," Washington said.

The government has funded more than 20 similar efforts examining the treatment of conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma. The programs operate through community health centers as part of the government's efforts to provide health care to people underserved, uninsured and at risk, he said.

Aunt Martha's has two such centers--in Chicago Heights and Aurora. It will develop the program at its Chicago Heights center, then spread the model to other providers. Of the center's 3,500 patients, 10 to 20 percent are adolescents.

"They may not know how to admit they are depressed or even be in touch with it," he said. "There are typical behaviors of adolescents which are problematic, and the challenge is to separate those from ones which may indicate depression."

One of the program's top priorities is suicide prevention.

"Suicide is a significant concern because it is one of the top five leading causes of death in adolescents, and we know suicide only occurs in the presence of depression," Washington said.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that those seeing patients at community health centers have access to the best information.

Washington and his staff are joining with child psychology experts from Columbia University in New York City and the staff of two health centers in Colorado in an exchange of data and resources. The group is trying to determine the best diagnostic tool for screening adolescents for depression by examining 30 questionnaires and experimenting with a computer conducting the screening.